In my comments the other day, Maggie asked:
Since you won’t be having any babies in the house for a while, can I ask a question? You may have answered this in another post, but after searching, I couldn’t find it. How do you deal with all of the cat hair in your house? I swear, I’ll spend an hour in my tiny house cleaning up after my two cats, and then a tumbleweed of cat fur goes rolling by me. I can’t even imagine how much cat hair all your kitties leave around! And in all of your pictures, your house looks so clean! What dark magic do you do???
I wish I had some wonderful secrets to impart (I’m a witch! All I have to do is wiggle my nose, and the cat hair is GONE to parts unknown!). Really, I’m lucky that we have a fairly big house, the cats mostly spread out so the cat hair is spread out as well, and also about half the cat population spends at least part of the day outside (our back yard is fenced in, and they can’t get out of the yard).
In a perfect world, I’d vacuum at least every other day, but in this world I usually manage about twice a week, and that keeps it mostly under control.
(I LOVE my Dyson vacuum, by the way!)
I have Roomba that I run in the kitchen (the place where the cat hair really accumulates) and occasionally in the bedrooms (mostly to get the cat hair and dust that’s collected under the beds).
You’d think, as many cats as I have, I’d always be covered in cat hair, but somehow that doesn’t really happen, and I can’t explain why, ’cause I don’t know! I do a quick check if I’m going out in public, and I might run one of those sticky-tape pet-hair-collector thingies over my clothes if need be (AND I avoid wearing black!).
Have you heard about the Pledge Fabric Sweeper? I use those to get the cat hair off the couches, and they do a great job. (Note: the Fabric Sweeper is meant to be used once, then tossed, but that is utterly ridiculous and wasteful. You can pop the container off when it’s full, empty it, and reuse it. It eventually stops picking up hair as well, but I usually fill up the container three times before I get to that point.)
So, yeah, no great cleaning tips from me. Someone did say in the comments that it’s really a matter of keeping on top of it, which is true, but it probably also helps to develop a little selective blindness. If it’s only been a day since I vacuumed, I’m not in the vacuuming mood, and there’s a dust bunny herd stampeding across the living room, I’ve been known to somehow NOT see it.
Also, my house is not nearly as spotless as it appears in photos, believe me!
When it comes to the foster room, I try a little harder to keep on top of the cleaning because with multiple cats in one room (even when they’re tiny – actually, ESPECIALLY when they’re tiny!) it can get pretty bad quickly. I almost always vacuum the foster room every other day (the fosters go into a carrier in the bathroom while I’m vacuuming so as not to terrify them), and on the in-between days, I have this ancient Shark Handheld Cordless Sweeper that I bought way back when I had my very first set of fosters. I crawl around the room on my hands and knees with that thing and get up any stray litter or fur. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s quiet enough to not scare the babies, it’s easy to empty, and it does a decent job of picking stuff up.
Wow, I can just go on and on for ages about anything at all, can’t I? 🙂
Got a favorite cleaning tip? Feel free to share in the comments!
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LOOK who I found on my memory stick!
That’s Ouiser in the front, M’Lynn and Clairee in the back.
Drum and M’Lynn.
I forgot they were so little!
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“What’s this ‘recovering from surgery’ bull? When Spanky wants his Snackin’! Time!, Spanky WANTS his Snackin’! Time!, and I recommend you hop to it, lady!”
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Previously
2009: And they’re such sweet girls, they deserve to find their forever homes fast!
2008: Poor girlies.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Selective blindness…I highly recommend it 😉 With three long-haired cats in the house, my strategy is comb/brush the cats every day, get Husband to vacuum the whole house at least once a week, and then use selective blindness to ignore whatever’s left 🙂
There’s also this thing called the Zoom Groom which does wonders for brushing off loose hair from shorthair cats…it’s not that great for my Persian cats since they need combing to make sure they don’t get mats, but even with them, I use it occasionally to just gather up any loose hair before it ends on my carpet…plus they all seem to love it, I think it massages them or something.
Hit the submit button too soon…I was also going to say, love how tiny the Magnolias were 😉 Hope you’re feeling much much better and almost fully recovered 🙂 Those snacks aren’t going to get themselves out of the cupboard and into Spanky’s mouth, you know! 🙂
Well, if you look at my pics, especially the old ones, you can see that for us it is selective blindness all the way. Now that we have the laminate floors there are a lot more fur tumbleweeds in the house – those are fun to watch. We have areas that get real bad, like under the stairs and in corners. I avoid those in pics, or there is always a girls best friend – photoshop!
But seriously, we use a lot of spot shot and out (out is great but I can’t find it anymore around here – so annoying) and kids and pets on carpets and stuff like that, and a good old fashioned hand broom for cleaining up the bits of cat food that get thrown everywhere. But well, we are lazy, and kind of messy, so a few fur tumbleweeds aren’t a big concern.
I do practice selective blindness fervently, and I have resigned to the fact that I will always need to brush my clothes from head to toe with the lint roller before I can go to work (on the weekends I’m not so particular).
I vaccuum once or twice a week, but we’re lucky because the whole apartment is carpeted, so it keeps the hair on the floor and doesn’t show too much – unless you sit on the floor, in which case you will get up with a furry butt!
My cats love the zoom groom too, and it gets TONS of fur off both my shorthaired cats and the longhaired ones (they don’t mat thank Gawd)… but I do it more to avoid hairballs than to avoid hair on furniture.
So those of you guys that have a Roomba, are you happy with it?
Ah ha! Selective Blindness. I have that too, but I just didn’t know a name for it. Thanks for the tip on the Pledge Fabric Sweeper. I had seen it in the stores, but didn’t want to waste more money on another de-fur product. I’ll have to check that one out. We really want to get a Roomba as well. I think that will go up higher on our wish list. Thanks so much for your input!
it helps if you don’t have the two SHEDDIEST cats on the planet who especially love to lay all over the furniture. and the BEST part is one’s white, and one’s black, so i’m screwed no matter what i wear.
I have a Roomba…love it so much it puts a tear in my eye! I have all hard flooring (wood and tile) and tumbleweeds really show up. (One kitty is long haired and WHITE). The fabric sweepers are excellent. I don’t use the new Pledge one, I use a different one (can’t think of the brand off hand), but like the Pledge, I use it multiple times. Costco has the newer Roomba with the bigger dirt tray. Highly recommended. Do pick up little kitty toys as it will choke on them. Not a big deal though. My bff has 3 dogs and she named hers “Hairy”! 🙂
By the way…the FURminator….cheapest on Amazon… FABULOUS!!!!! Get the real one!!! There are multiple sizes…get the 1.75″ for cats.
Yeah, the Furminator is money well-spent. I have enough fur when I am done to build another cat and it keeps him from developing furballs.
Glad to hear you are recovering nicely.
My Mom & Dad recommend black pants, the fur just jumps right on to them every time!
Yup ~ love the Dyson as well! Not too much cat hair at my house either. Of course, I only have one kitty running around! 🙂
ROFL, Robyn!! (“Also, my house is not nearly as spotless as it appears in photos, believe me!”) I am so guilty of editing the… ummmm, errrr… less than tidy parts out!
Amy: “Now that we have the laminate floors there are a lot more fur tumbleweeds in the house – those are fun to watch.”
I just busted a gut! 😀 I’m very much with you on this one! We have no carpet upstairs, so it’s fun to sit and count how many tumbleweeds go by when the furnace comes on.
Cleaning? Qu’est-ce que c’est? 😛
Our momma and daddy have gotten very used to kitty hair everywhere – it’s how other kitties know that they are taken!
We love seeing the pictures of all of the kitties – they grow so fast.
Did you get your snacks, Spanky?
Have a nice weekend,
Charlemagne and Tamar
Not sure if you mind being asked another question while you’re recovering (I hope the recovery from surgery is going well!), but my mom and I have been talking about the veterinarian telling us we should try to brush our cat’s (Clover) teeth. Do you brush your cats’ teeth? I was just wondering how many people do this and how many people have to deal with cats who have dental issues.
Also, I just wanted to say I wish we could get more cats but my mom would flip is she had to deal with more fur (and we have a short hair!) so I love reading your blog and getting my fulfillment of kitty goodness! 😀 Thank you!
What cat hair??!!
Frankly, see more in the form of hairballs around here! and that’s if I don’t step in it first!!
Just saw an article on teeth and brushing them, and was wondering the same thing myself about cats. How in the world?? I think it would be just as growl-inducing as clipping toenails with ours. I’d love to know more about that, as our older tortie has some red gums and potential issues with her teeth. The youngster has healthy teeth but not-so-nice breath.
thanks!
I hear you on the selective blindness. Infact, I have it right now… 😉
Its been a while, but when I brushed my cat’s teeth it wasn’t nearly as stressful for them as clipping nails usually is. You can usually get at the outside of the teeth just by opening the lips a bit and scrubbing away. Since you don’t have to open the mouth like giving a pill, and the toothpaste seems to taste ok they didn’t give too much trouble.
Getting the tops and inside parts of the tooth, well, you can try it but they don’t tolerate it that much. Of course you get the itty brush, not a human toothbrush.
I did it in the living room, with the cat on my lap on a big towel to avoid getting too wet. A glass of water to dunk the brush in for rinsing. Brushing in the bathroom would probably scare them, just because its the awful bathroom.